


Hear No Evil

by Waffles_and_Fries



Series: Hear my voice, Take my hand [1]
Category: Bird Box (2018), Guardians of the Galaxy (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst and Feels, Character Death, Gen, I'm obsessed with this stuff, Peter still ends up being a guardian though, Young Peter Quill
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-09
Updated: 2019-02-09
Packaged: 2019-10-07 12:22:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,740
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17365751
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Waffles_and_Fries/pseuds/Waffles_and_Fries
Summary: The Bird box AU that no one asked for but was unkind enough to get stuck in my brain.or in other wordsPeter, Meredith, and his Grandpa survive the initial wave of mass suicides with a handful of people. But, one by one they start to die off. Low on food and struggling to survive, Peter turns to his beloved walkman, because he may not be able to see but he can still hear; and the Dulcet tones of Blue Swede will always be better than the whispers of the dead.





	Hear No Evil

**Author's Note:**

> I do not own Guardians of the Galaxy or its characters (If I did Yondu would still be alive) and I also do not have the good fortune to own birdbox or its lovely characters. Again if I did, certain characters would still be alive.
> 
> WARNINGS: Mentions and/or Depictions of Suicide  
> Minor/Major Character Death  
> Blood  
> Kidnapping of a minor

It happened fast. One moment Peter and his family were on the patio enjoying the good weather when suddenly there was a scream. Peter, whipped his head up at the sound but his grandma quickly blocked his view and rushed him inside. When he attempted to follow her back out the door she stopped him and shook her head. “Honey, I need you to stay in here ok? Don’t come out unless your Mom, Grandpa or I tell you to.” He hesitantly nodded and watched as she dashed back out the door.

The next half-hour was pure chaos. A litany of screams and loud bangs pouring in through the cracked window until Peter couldn’t take it and jammed his bright orange, cushioned headphones on and drowned out the world in the drumbeats of the first song to play on his walkman. Willfully ignoring the strangers that his mother kept dragging into the house before rushing back out. Eventually, She pulled her father in, slammed the door closed and locked it. It was only then that Peter lowered the volume of his walkman. He didn’t feels ready to turn it all the way off. Relying on the background noise of the music to give himself false confidence. "Mom?" he asked in a quivering voice. She glanced at him giving him a shaky smile but didn't reply, instead turning her focus to Grandpa.

 

"Pa? Pa, come on, talk to me." She pleaded as she followed him. But he studiously ignored her, face stoic as he worked his way through shuttering and covering all the windows. "Pa!" Mom uncharacteristically shouted, and Peter tried to hide his startled flinch, not wanting to draw attention from the strangers gathered in the room. Grandpa yanked the curtains over the the only window left in the room yet to be covered in some way. Peter him give a choppy sigh before leaning heavily against the sill.

 

"What?" He asked, refusing to look up from the floor. She hesitantly moved toward the older man. Reaching out with a shaking hand, covered in something red that Peter refused to identify, she touched her father’s shoulder.

 

"Pa, please, we need to talk about what just happened." she pleaded. Grandpa shook her hand off before rising.

 

"What is there to talk about? We just watched at least a dozen people just up and kill themselves! What else it there to say about it!"

 

"Maybe acknowledge the fact that Ma just-" She cut herself off suddenly, looking at Peter before grabbing the elder's arm and dragging him away from the boy and continuing their conversation in harsh whispers.

"This is just insane. This has to be some kind of nightmare." one of the strangers said in a tone full of disbelief. He looked a little older than Peter's mom with short black hair. He had a hoodie and ripped jeans on. An outfit he'd heard his Grandfather criticize more then once. His comment caused the rest of the occupants of the room to look at him.  

 

Peter saw a woman with long blond hair walk over from the other side of room, fixing the man with a harsh look."Now isn't the time to be freaking out. This isn't a dream, This is happening in real life." She sneered. "If this were a dream I never would've allowed myself to be trapped here with _you._ "

An Asian woman, dressed in black joggers and workout clothes roll eyes. "Now really isn't the time for your little divorcee feud with Bryan, Martha." She stated in a droll tone. The woman-Martha-turned her glare to the other woman. But before she could say a word the man who-after being pulled in my Peter's Mom-had contented himself to standing in the corner away from the others, spoke up.

"She's right. Now isn't the time to be fighting amongst each other."

"Miss prissy-prissy is the one who started it." Bryan defended. Martha snorted but thankfully refrained from comment. Peter frowned and looked away from the small group and looked toward his family. He was relieved to see that they had finished and were now walking toward them. He noticed that his Mom's eyes looked red as well as her father's. His eyes grew wide and he looked back toward his mom for reassurance. He had seen Meredith cry several times before hand but _never_ had he seen his Grandfather cry. Not even tear up. Meredith caught sight of the fearful look in his eyes and her face softened. Peter waved slightly, eliciting a fond laugh and gentle smile from her as she waved back. Peter happily let her wrap him in her arms once she reached him. Body and soul craving some reassurance after the insanity from the last half hour.

“Oh baby, I’m so sorry. I know I promised you a trip to the creek later today but that just can’t happen now.” His Mom murmured into his auburn curls. Squeezing him gently before releasing him and rising from her crouch. Peter shook his head giving her a smile to tell her he didn’t mind. Grandpa reached over and lightly ruffled his hair. He then turned to address the now silent group.

“Welcome to my home. Seeing as the world has gone to hell outside this will be the ‘home’ for the seven of us for the foreseeable future. At least until earth gets her shit back together. Now, I’m the owner of the house. This means that I make the rules and if you don’t like that you can walk right out that front door. You can address me as Mr.Quill, this is my daughter and her son. Got it?” The others shared a look before they hurriedly nodded, a look of slight fear on their faces. Peter didn’t blame them, he’d been on the receiving end of that glare before and it was downright terrifying when leveled right at him. Meredith smiled stiffly and clapped her hands in the awkward silence.

“Right! Now that that is over let’s get to know each other! What can we call you folks?”

“Bryan.”

“Martha.”

The black haired woman stepped forward. “Amy."

"I just moved here, my name’s Jay.” He said. He seemed to curl into himself shyly. Stray strands of chestnut hair falling over matching skin to cover their view of his eyes.

Amy smiled and nodded. "Heck of a house warming party huh?" she said with a friendly laugh.

Jay looked back up at her and offered her a smile. “Yeah, I can definitely say that I've never experienced something like this before." He seemed more at ease after that, moving away from his corner and toward Amy.

The room remained silent for a few moments until Peter couldn’t stand it. He boldly stepped forward an thrust his chin up and stared them all in the face before stating, “I’m Peter.”

Six pairs of eyes studied him and Peter suddenly felt bad for his class’s goldfish. His cheeks heated and he shifted anxiously in place. He was just about to retreat from the room when a hand appeared in front of him. “Hi Peter, nice to meet you.” He gave a blinding grin and took Amy’s proffered hand and gave it a firm shake, like his grandpa had taught him.

 

* * *

 

 

Things went pretty smoothly after that. The house, though small, allowed them to spend the next few days awkwardly avoiding each other. Peter attempted to interact with the others but the only one open to his advances was Amy. So he spent his days couped up in either his room, which now housed his Mom, or hanging out with Amy as she regaled him with stories of all the places she had visited. When night came and Peter was curled up under his blanket he would shove his headphones on to avoid hearing the whispers that always seemed to float in through the boarded up window. Whispers that he swore sounding like Grandma. But none of them believed him so he stopped mentioning it.

It was on a seemingly quiet night that things went downhill. Peter had just began to drift off to sleep when a loud scream resounded through the house. Peter shot out of bed and ran toward the door before his frazzled mother could stop him. He didn’t get far though before someone, Amy he soon realized, grabbed him and prevented him from entering the kitchen. Grandpa barreled past them and Peter could clearly hear him curse from the next room over. “What the hell happened?!” He shouted. Peter strained his ears to try to hear a reply.

Fortunately, Amy was just as curious and shifted forward. Taking Peter with her but continued to block his view. The movement was enough to allow him to hear the conversation clearly. “I-I-I don’t know! I thought I heard something so I went to make sure that everything was ok and-a-a-and he was just-” The feminine voice that could only belong to Martha broke of into a loud sob. Another voice seemed to whisper reassuringly to her. While Grandpa started up a fresh wave of curses.

Peter heard Bryan’s voice now join the mix. He must of been the voice reassuring Martha. “Why would he do this?”

Silence met his question until Meredith exclaimed. “The window!”

 

Grandpa must of seen what she was talking about as he cursed once again. He seemed to be doing that a lot recently Peter idly thought. “Everyone close your eyes!” Peter unhesitatingly obeyed even though he couldn’t see past Amy. Listening as hurried footsteps moved to the other side of the next room and the window was slammed shut. Not daring to breath until he heard the _snick_ of the curtains closing soon after. Grandpa sighed and murmured the all clear to everyone. Once he'd extradited himself from Amy's hold his eyes shot around looking for his Mom. He didn't have to look long, as Meredith swept him up into her arms and started to quickly move toward their shared room. The last thing he heard was his Bryan asking what they should do to the body.

 

* * *

 

 

The next morning Peter rolled out of bed and stumbled toward the kitchen. He stalled at the kitchen doorway hearing the hushed whispers of the other occupants in the house.

 

“I just don’t understand why he would have opened the window.” Peter frowned. Was that Amy?

 

“At least there’s one less mouth to feed.”

 

“Bryan!”

 

“What! It’s true!”

 

“Stop! Now really isn’t the time for this.” Peter jumped at his grandfather’s sudden shout.

 

There was a pregnant pause, tension thick in the air. Peter took the time to scoot farther into the room. Just enough to be able to see what was happening in the room. He could see Martha and Bryan sitting practically on top of eachother. Amy sitting to the right of them and Grandpa on the other end. Meredith situated on the floor, furiously scrubbing at something with a sponge.

 

“Well...since we’re on the topic, I noticed this morning that the shelves have been getting kinda slim. We need to talk about what we’re gonna do when we run out”

 

“Don’t worry we’re fine the shelves may be low but we still have the pantry and a ton of food in the basement.”

 

Meredith popped her head up to face the people gathered at the table. “That’s right! Mom’s favourite hobby was canning.”

 

“We still need to discuss what we’ll do. I don’t want to wait to try to figure it out when we’re all starving.” Peter, in a bid to get a better view of the room made the mistake of stepping on top of a creaky board. He froze but the damage was done, as now everyone was staring at him. He smiled sheepishly at them and cleared his.

 

“Good mornin’ guys.”

 

“Morning sweetie! Do you want some breakfast?” his mom asked brightly.

 

“No thank-you...are really running out food?” he questioned quietly. He looked away from his Mom when she refused to answer and looked his Grandfather in the eye with in a rare show of defiance toward family. Grandpa sighed.

 

“Ah hell, I don’t make a habit of lying to kids and-” he held a hand up to stop his daughter from interrupting him,  “the kids mature enough to know. We can’t afford to molly cottle him in this new fucked up world.” He got up and, with a small wince, crouched down in front of him. “Yes we are gettin’ a little slim in the cabinets but we have some time before we run out and even then we’ll figure something out. Ok?”

 

Peter nodded face scrunched up in concern. Amy stood up and wiped her hands on her pants before walking over to the two. “C’mon on kid.” Peter looked up at her, tilting his head.

 

“What are we doing?” he questioned, brows furrowed in confusion.

 

“I figured I might try to teach ya some latin.” She chuckled at the expression on his face. “Don’t give me that look. It’s more fun than you think.” She reassured, ruffling his hair as she lead him out the room.

 

* * *

 

Peter was startled awake when he heard a door slam shut. Peter frowned and rolled out of bed. He glanced over at the couch on the other side of the room and saw his mom sleeping soundly. He exited his room and padded through the hallway toward the sound. His frown deepened when he noticed the living room that served as a bedroom for Martha and Bryan was empty. He continued on but froze when he caught a glimpse of the kitchen. “Mom!...Grandpa!!” He the pounding of feet come rushing toward him, only to stop behind him. Strong, calloused hands spun him around to be face to face with his wide eyed Grandpa.

 

“Pete what’s wrong?” He asked breathless. Peter opened his mouth but couldn’t think of a way to explain and just wordlessly pointed behind him. Grandpa glanced behind him and seemingly took in the scene for the first time. He let go of Peter’s shoulders and rushed into the kitchen and started opening cabinets. After a fruitless search he slammed the cabinet closed and stood in the wreckage of the ransacked kitchen. “Those bastards!” He shouted.

 

“Is it all gone?” Peter jumped at the voice behind him, he hadn’t realized that both Meredith and Amy were hovering behind him.

 

“Yes.” the old man growled. He marched over to the front door before he firmly locked the bolt. “If they want to try to make it on their own then be my guest, but they won’t be stepping foot in this house ever again.” He declared before storming off. Peter stared at his Grandpa’s back before looking at two women. Mom slumped against the wall for a moment before taking a deep breath and gathering herself.

 

“Peter go back to bed. You need to get some sleep, tomorrow will be a long day. Amy would you mind giving me a hand with cleaning this up?” Amy nodded and wordlessly joined Meredith in the kitchen.

 

* * *

 

**20 Months later**

 

  
“ **_Quid est iter?_ ** ” ( _How was the trip?)_ Peter questioned happily when Amy and Grandpa walked back through the door. Amy smiled as she removed her blindfold.

 

“ **_Vos have been practicing. Iam tu melior es sonitu buccinæ, et non sum superbus_ ** ” _(You have been practicing. You sound better already, I’m so proud.)_ She replied. Peter’s grin brightened and he bounced off to help his Mom restock the kitchen. They had to start doing food runs not long after Martha and Bryan had left. Peter was never allowed to go with them. They said he could go when he was older, but Peter felt he was old enough. He’d turned eight last month and he was starting to get bored in the house. He had to admit that the latin lessons were actually fun. It was like they had their own secret language, something Peter had always thought would be cool, had he any friends in school he might of had one sooner. But he Amy was his friend now and he didn’t mind that she wasn’t his age. At least she didn’t tease him like the other kids at school had. He shook his head to clear it and resumed his shelving.

 

He couldn’t wait for his chance to go outside. He softly hummed some White snake to himself while he wandered down the hall. He paused, song stuttering to a stop when he heard an unfamiliar voice in the room ahead. "Thank-you for letting me in. I was starting to think I was the only one still alive around here."

 

"No problem sir," Peter's eyes widened,  _Mom?_ Peter didn't stay to hear anymore. Immediately dashing off to find the others.  _Why would Mom open the window to someone they didn't know? She told him herself the dangers of looking outside. Not to mention the stories that he'd heard about the crazies outside their four walls._ He skidded to a halt once he caught sight of both Grandpa and Amy,seemingly discussing something important. Grandpa cut himself off when he caught sight of his breathless Grandson.

 

Grandpa quickly stood , not even bothering to pick up the downed chair, caused by his rise. "What's wrong? Where is she?"

 

Peter gestured frantically for them to follow him. Figuring it'd be easier then taking the time to explain.

 Both Grandpa and Amy followed behind them. Freezing when they saw the sunshine streaming though the open doorway. "Peter stay here and do  _not_ go into that room. Understood?" Grandpa ordered. Peter nodded his head with wide eyes fixed to the stream of sunlight. Amy followed closely behind Grandpa and they soon disappeared as well. The light was soon blocked out but Peter never got to find out what happened as something hard suddenly struck his head and the world went black.

 

* * *

 

 

It was weirdly warm. That's the first thing Peter registered. The next was the long lost but not forgotten smell and feel of dirt pressed against his cheek. He body went rigid at the realisation that he was outside. But he didn't have a blindfold. Peter began to search himself but to no avail. His breath quickened and he squeezed his eyes shut as hard as he could.  _No, no, no, no, no, no, no!_

There was the sound of crunching leaves behind him and he whirled around. "Well hello, little one. I've brought the rest of your family so we can all enjoy this moment together. Doesn't that sound nice?"

 

Peter back away from the disembodied voice, head swinging trying to judge a good direction to run. "Ah ah ah, none of that. If you run I'll just end up having to hurt you. Now come here and join your family."

 

" **Ne facial Petri! Curre! Cu-** " _(Don't listen Peter! Run! Ru- )_ her voice was cut off by a cry of pain. But her message was clear. Peter took off. He recognized the sound of the creak. It was just behind his house. He took of in the opposite direction, running as fast as he could with his eyes still shut. He'd been running for maybe two minutes when he ran directly into a tree. His momentum causing him fall to the ground. He cried out and clawed at his now bleeding nose.

Footsteps where quickly approaching him but he was too distracted by the pain radiating from his face. He kicked out and struggled against the hands that gripped him. But he was no match and soon found himself back where he started. "For that our dear bilingual friend goes first." He heard a sob and what sounded like a struggle.

 

"No! Please, no! Why are you doing this?!" Amy cried. Her pleas growing in volume till she suddenly fell quiet.

 

"Yes, look at it. Isn't it beautiful?" The voice asked. Amy remained silent for a moment before she spoke. Her voice holding a dream like quality to it.

 

"Mom?" Peter heard a splashing sound. Like someone was walking into the creek. "Your voice...I forgot how pretty it was..."

 

More splashes echoed through the now silent clearing. But eventually even those fell silent as well.

 

Peter didn't know what exactly happened next. Only that it was loud. But he was too lost in his spiraling thoughts _. Amy. Beautiful, kind Amy. Gone. Gone, gone, gone. Like Grandma. Like Jay, Martha, and Bryan. But this was Amy. Amy was different. But now she was **gone.** Who would this monster take next. Please, please don't take Mom. I don't know what I would do if Mo-. _Warm gentle arms wrapped around him.

 

"Shush baby it's ok. I know, I'm so sorry, it's ok, we're safe now. Just let it out." Peter leaned into his Mom's warmth. Letting tears stream down his face. Meredith picked him up and stumbled forward before regaining here balance.

 

Peter didn't pay attention to the rest of the walk. He simply buried his head into his Mother's neck, regardless of the pain that flared in his nose from the action. Clutching to her until he fell asleep exhausted.

 

* * *

 

 

**1 Year Later**

 

Peter looked at the strip of cloth carefully. Meredith smiled and picked up the blindfold and gently put it on him. She put her hands to his cheeks. Running the pads of her thumbs against his smooth skin. “It’s to keep you safe baby, We can’t look outside we have to keep inside or have our eyes closed. This is so we can go outside and not worry about seeing anything, ok?” Peter nodded. “I need you to promise me you wont take it. No matter what you hear or think you hear. You need to keep it own. Only take it off once your home. Promise me.” She pleaded, a desperate tone to her voice.

 

“I promise” He whispered.

 

He heard her sniff and the shift of clothes that he guessed meant she had stood up. “Good, thank-you. I love you, you know I wouldn’t do anything that would hurt my little star-lord, right?” She murmured. He nodded vigorously, he didn’t like the glass like tone in her voice. Her hand found his and she started to lead him over to the others. “Pa, could you tie my blindfold?” Grandpa wordlessly did as asked and once she was settled they made their way out the door.

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you guys enjoyed my first dabble in the fanfiction art. Please leave constructive criticism and give a kudos. Also, big shout out to my beta reader! Thanks for making sure I don't sound like a fool online! (Because trust me. I do in real life)


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